First Advisor

Subject Headings

Abstract

This thesis encompasses control theory, mathematical models and practical methods for developing high performance control loops for compact DC-DC power converters. In this research we compare an existing hardware control loop design developed through traditional empirical tuning methods to a control loop established by a proposed systematic design approach. To address the many problems of ad-hoc controller design for DC-DC converters, we develop a procedure utilizing tools from frequency domain analysis and loop shaping techniques. This design approach is used to ensure control loop stability and to verify improved loop performance. This systematic control loop design procedure can be utilized for future development work to create improved DC-DC converter control loops. Our goal is to turn the art of traditional empirical tuning into a science by creating a systematic process utilizing tools that can quantify and define DC-DC converter control loop performance. Mathematical simulations are used to verify the control loop models before hardware verification. Finally we compare resulting performance of the control loop circuitry designed with the proposed approach to that of the empirical approach